Alexander Fanta Profile picture
Sep 3, 2020 5 tweets 4 min read Read on X
EU parliamentarian @SophieintVeld is rightly exasperated about the Commission refusing to properly answer questions on use of facial recognition by police forces. "The Commission is doing bugger-all about it. (...) This is not a democratic procedure!" #LIBE Image
LIBE chair @JFLopezAguilar agrees that the quality of replies by the Commission to written inquiries by parliament is very poor, "absolutely unacceptable". The Commission can not just copy-paste legal situation, but must address the political nature of the questions.
The complaint is seconded by @BirgitSippelMEP and @echo_pbreyer. LIBE chair indicates it is open to writing formal letter to Commission demanding proper answers to questions. I guess this will find deep echo in large parts of the EP.
To illustrate the nature of the complaint, these are very specific question by in 't Veld, @moritzkoerner and others on Clearview: europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document…

This is the absolute non-answer by the Commission, which basically just summarizes the law: europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document… Image
To add injury to insult, only minutes later the Commission delivers another non-answer on pertinent questions by @SophieintVeld on the Google-Fitbit merger: europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document…

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More from @FantaAlexx

Aug 25
The news that Telegram founder Pavel Durov was arrested at the airport in Paris is huge, with potentially massive consequences for EU digital policy. So far, Telegram is the outlier among messaging apps - a lawless place, where scams and drug trade happen with near impunity. 🧵
Law enforcement across Europe complain that Telegram ignores requests such as for subscriber data of users engaged in suspected drug trades. Telegram gets away with it partly because its HQ is in the UAE, thus removing it from the grasp of EU authorities.
Since the EU's Digital Services Act has kicked into force last year, Telegram has named an EU representative in Belgium, which in theory makes it the point of contact for authorities across Europe. But that along gives law enforcement little leverage to get data from Telegram.
Read 8 tweets
Jul 15
Remember when Hollywood actor Ashton Kutcher had all these one-on-one meetings with important people in the European Union, including Commission President Ursula von der Leyen?

Kutcher was lobbying to curtail privacy, for the sake of fighting child sexual abuse. What gives? 🧵 Image
Two years ago, the European Commission proposed a law that could give authorities the power to require service providers such as WhatsApp to scan all user images and videos on device for child abuse images (CSAM), even circumventing encryption. Privacy advocates were alarmed.
But despite the concerns, Kutcher's NGO Thorn lobbied heavily for the law - and offered its own software to scan for CSAM.

As the Commission readied its proposal, it thanked Thorn as 'partner' for its 'close collaboration'. Image
Read 11 tweets
Oct 15, 2023
BREAKING - After reports that the EU Commission used political microtargeting to sway key groups of their controversial CSAM proposal, the European Data Protection Supervisor has reached out under the "so-called pre-investigation procedure."

What does this mean?
The EDPS requested "information related to the described use of microtargeted ads, to be provided by 20 0ctober."
The EU's data protection authority told me that while "this step does not constitute opening of a formal investigation, the EDPS will assess the information, once received from the Commissions, and decide on the potential next steps accordingly."
Read 5 tweets
Feb 13, 2023
This is a huge, huge deal. Could be the biggest EU transparency litigation in a decade.

The New York Times is taking the European Commission to court over Ursula von der Leyen's secret text messages with the CEO of Pfizer.

A bit more context in this 🧵

politico.eu/article/new-yo…
What is this about?

In 2021, the EU was desperate for more Covid vaccines. Pfizer had the goods, but was slow to deliver.

In the dire early months of 2021, Von der Leyen took it on herself to personally negotiate for 1,8 billion vaccine doses.
Soon after Von der Leyen sealed the deal with Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla in calls and text messages, the New York Times reported.

nytimes.com/2021/04/28/wor…
Read 13 tweets
Jul 14, 2022
The Commission has denied access to the EU membership questionnaire which president Zelenskyy personally handed to Ursula von der Leyen during a visit to Kyiv in June. #Ukraine Von der Leyen handed a piece of paper by Zelenskyi
Why is this important? Von der Leyen said in a speech on April 8 that "[t]his questionnaire is the basis for our discussion in the coming months." It details on political and economic criteria for accession, as well as the aquis of European law.
When I asked the Commission for the questionnaire, they told me that the Ukrainian government had published the questions (if not the answers) on their website. They have since been removed and are unfindable on the Wayback Machine.
Read 8 tweets
Apr 30, 2022
Eigentlich recht merkwürdig, dass das ziemlich beachtliche Interview von @KappacherS mit Gemeindebundpräsident Riedl im Mittagsjournal heute so wenig Beachtung fand. Warum es so interessant war? Ein 🧵
Zum einen hat Riedl mit seiner kritischen Haltung zur ÖVP-Spitze kaum hinter Berg gehalten und deutlich Ärger über die vielen Korruptionsvorwürfe spüren lassen. Im einzigen Zeitungsbericht im Kurier kommt das zahm rüber, aber an der Basis brodelt offenbar.
kurier.at/politik/inland…
Interessant auch, dass Riedl beim heißen Övp-Thema Kinderbetreuung ("Kann ich ein Bundesland aufheizen") mehr Geld und Standards vom Bund fordert. Hier kriegt die Kritik an der kopflosen Parteiführung eine inhaltliche Kontur.
Read 5 tweets

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